ENZO MARESCA promised steps forward and his Chelsea side delivered them.
Under the roof of Atlanta’s incredible Mercedes Benz Arena, the Blues finally started to show some of the Italian’s famed football as they grabbed a first win of this pre-season tour.
Having drawn with League One Wrexham and lost to Scottish champions Celtic before now, this was by far and away the most convincing Chelsea have looked.
And while fans will know little about Mexican opponents Club America, the fact they are sharp from being four games into their domestic season offers more reason for encouragement.
Chelsea’s late training session on Tuesday may have been curtailed slightly by a biblical Georgia thunderstorm, but Maresca has certainly started getting his ideas across.
The Italian manager has been putting his players through very detailed sessions, starting with a slow build up of possession with no defenders pressing before stepping things up.
He has been walking them through it, involved in the moves himself, before picking the pace up – and fans finally started to see that against Club America.
Things calmed down after the break, with Chelsea two ahead through Christopher Nkunku and Marc Guiu, but across the first 45 minutes the Blues looked as sharp as they have under Maresca.
The new boss said: “For us the result is always important because we are Chelsea but in this moment, the main focus cannot be the result.
“It’s to analyse or judge the performance and to see how we improve. In my personal opinion, from Wrexham, Celtic and today, we continue to improve. This is the most important thing.
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“We struggled against Wrexham for many reasons, we struggled against Celtic for many reasons but there were many important things we improved.
“We continued that line. Since we started, what we do in training has to happen here in the game.”
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, making his first appearance since following the manager from Leicester, looked superb in the system he thrived in at Championship level last season.
The midfielder, who started the pre-season tour with a knock, played 45 minutes and was a constant threat around the Club America box – timing his runs well with just the finishing needing work.
His understanding of Maresca’s system was clear, with team-mates having dubbed him the teacher’s pet at times.
Maresca said: “I didn’t know about these jokes, but from outside you can see he is speaking a different language in terms of that he knows exactly what he has to do, on and off the ball.
“Sometimes he goes wide, inside or in behind. I ask him inside the pitch to talk to his team-mates because he knows exactly how to move.
“He is going to help us many times this season.”
